Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Friday Notes Interrupted by Center House Gas Leak

11:17 a.m. Friday, March 16th
It has been a strange week. On Sunday there was the dog crisis on my doorstep and on Monday I happened to be walking north on 15th Avenue NW when there was a large Fire Department response to a “fire in single family residence”one block from where I was walking.

My doorstep was quiet on Tuesday and Wednesday but on Thursday morning Neighbor Bob called so early that I was sure he’d just discovered something that I hadn’t realized yet, like damage to my car. Instead he barked, “Front door. Banana bread.” I went to the door and accepted three slices wrapped in aluminum foil, steaming from the oven. Later that day there was a large cut branch of magnolia tree leaning on my front steps. Neighbor Bob said it wasn’t his work. I propped up the branch on the porch in a giant vase and the cat thinks it’s her water dish. The rumor is that the buds will still bloom.

I was forwarded a press release for an Equal Exchange event at Ballard Market later today (3-5 p.m. 3.16.07) that will involve free food and coffee and got distracted by the sender’s title: Community Brand Builder.

Could I become a Community Brand Builder?

I received…
11:48 a.m.
I just got a call from my daughter at Center School. What was I going to write before, oh yes I received word the Market Street Barber is moving. There’s a nurse in the Ballard Medical Plaza who still wears a nurse’s hat. But my daughter called to tell me that there had been an incident and I should know, “in case Gram calls.”

It should be noted that my mother lives in Massachusetts but often knows breaking news before I do. In this case my daughter reported an incident in the Chem Lab that is on the 3rd Flood of the Center House. Evidently someone turned on one or more gas jets in the lab. My daughter said that in her math class students were complaining of headaches. What she knows next is that there was Fire Department response, three students are at the hospital and there was a helicopter circling and three news crews. She told me two of the student’s names. She doesn’t know the name of the third. I know those students. I know their parents. We were all together last Saturday night waiting for our children to come through the exit for Gate C at the airport.

I get that old urge to race to the school like I did after the earthquake just to make sure that everyone is all right. Who would turn on gas jet? Was it an accident? What if there had been a spark? Will the students be all right? That’s no prank if it was deliberate; it could have blown the top off of part of the Center House and injured students and teachers.

My daughter said she’s heard that the students will be fine. It sounds lucky that no one lit a match for what 9-1-1 Dispatch lists as “Mutiple Casualty Incident.” Emily rode the bus with one of the girls yesterday; they were roommates last week, and they discussed the letdown after the school trip. I was looking at a picture of them all taken at the Empire State Building just this morning. The day that was record cold.

So yes, it has been a strange week, and it’s not over yet. On our walk this morning J and I could barely navigate Seaview Avenue across from the old Azteca. The sidewalks were blocked and the street was narrowed to one lane at a time for cars, with nothing for pedestrians except blank looks from the flagmen. But along the marina a worker went out of his way to point out an extension cord that crossed the sidewalk. “Be careful there,” he said. I thought if you only knew all the other dangers big and small, the actual roadblocks in the endless construction in Ballard and along the marina, the abstract challenges of life, parenting a teenager, keeping them safe, being a good neighbor, a citizen, a member of the 21st Century, you wouldn’t bother to point out the orange extension cord. No wonder I try to cling to the small details, the nurse’s hat, the gifts on the doorstep when the outside world seems too overwhelming.

The weekend ahead is to be filled with peace marches, soccer games, St. Patrick’s Day parties. How are the three students – have they flushed out the gas with a 100% oxygen? Where are their parents? Are they with them? Things can change in a heartbeat, a phone call, a blog. All I can say is, “be careful out there.”

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.